Friday, December 11, 2009

Contest Results

First off, thanks to everyone for not challenging which character was Kitty and which was Maria. One person tried to at work, and I hit him. (Duh, the one's that's a CAT is Kitty.)

Panel 1 has Kitty citing Fitts Law, which basically asserts that the time to move to and click on an object is a function of the size of the target and the distance the user must move the mouse. Kudos to EagleSongs for recognizing the law, but that would make Kitty the UI layout designer, someone who would be interested in things such as button location and size.

Panel 2 has has Maria citing Hicks Law, which asserts that the time it takes a user to choose among options is a function of the number of choices the user is presented with. That would make Maria the Information Architect. (Note the base 2 logarithm, on the assumption that choices are binary and the search can take advantage of a decision process that progressively cuts the available options in half.)

Here is a UI that is optimized for both laws:

Panel 3 is, as several pointed out, the opening of Hamlet's soliloquy expressed as a Boolean formula. A more graphical representation would be:

That would imply that the two met while taking a course in English Literature.

Technically, Siska provides the right choices, but her linking Maria with Fitts Law is wrong.

Anindita provides the most elegant explanation of the layout designer and information architect rationale, and although her answer to the third question is different from mine, I'm going to accept it and name her the winner!

Congratulations, Anidita. Send me your mailing address and I will send you your very owned signed copy of Iron Hoop.